New study aims to rapidly test lung cancer drugs

Source: AP-Excite

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

A bold new way to test cancer drugs started Monday in hundreds of hospitals around the U.S. In a medical version of speed dating, doctors will sort through multiple experimental drugs and match patients to the one most likely to succeed based on each person's unique tumor gene profile.

It's a first-of-a-kind experiment that brings together five drug companies, the government, private foundations and advocacy groups. The idea came from the federal Food and Drug Administration, which has agreed to consider approving new medicines based on results from the study.

Its goal is to speed new treatments to market and give seriously ill patients more chances to find something that will help. Instead of being tested for individual genes and trying to qualify for separate clinical trials testing single drugs, patients can enroll in this umbrella study, get full gene testing and have access to many options at once.

The study, called Lung-MAP, is for advanced cases of a common, hard-to-treat form of lung cancer — squamous cell. Plans for similar studies for breast and colon cancer are in the works.

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Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140616/us-med-faster-cancer-drugs-c848a054f3.html

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Breyan Harris, a lifelong non-smoker who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, posses at her home in Fair Oaks, Calif., Monday, June 16, 2014. Harris, 33, hopes to enroll in a new cancer drug test that starts Monday in hundred of hospitals around the country. Like a medical version of speed dating, doctors will sort through multiple potential drugs and match patients to the one most likely to succeed based on each person's unique tumor gene profile.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)